Massa: Button's lap time still incredible

7 February 2013 – Despite posting the fastest lap of the week at the Circuito de Jerez on Thursday, Felipe Massa's thoughts were firmly focused on the time McLaren rival Jenson Button was able to deliver at the very start of the pre-season test in southern Spain.

Massa, who clocked a 1:17.879 on the Soft Pirelli compound this morning, believes the 1:18.861 set by his McLaren rival was more impressive due to the unfavourable track conditions and the fact that Button was using a set of Hard tyres.

"I still believe his lap was incredible," said Massa. "On Hard tyres, on the first day, on a dirty track; I still believe it was a quick lap time. I didn’t have the car to do this lap time on the first day. We didn’t even try, I need to work for the lap time."

Reflecting on his first three days of pre-season testing at Jerez, Massa insisted that although he is feeling comfortable at the wheel of the new F138, his feet are firmly on the ground.

"It's going in the direction that I was hoping, but the races are where it counts," he added. "It's always nice but it doesn't count so much (in the tests). Our feet are on the ground and we need to work 100 percent to improve the car for the first race."

Ferrari development driver Pedro de la Rosa will make his testing debut for the Italian team on Friday, taking to the Jerez circuit to gather data for its simulator in Maranello.

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